Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2003-01-19 10:43 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2003-01-19 10:43 pm
Old fastwrite from English, on single parenthood and poverty
Being broke is a piece of shit, and no fun. If I were so dead broke as to not afford clothes or a place to live, I'd be an outcast. Homeless shelters are overcrowded and really nasty places to be, filled with drugs, crime, and violence. I didn't have an after-school job when I was a teenager.
If you're broke, it's not that you like living in a dirty house with stuff broken. It's that you're too tired from work, which is generally lousy and tiring, to do anything especially if there are kids to watch. Broken, poor-quality belongings -- replace the vacuum cleaner or make rent? Dirty floor or out on the street?
If you've never been hurting poor, you are unlikely to understand just how bad a situation it is. If it's a choice between be broke and be there for the kid, or work and have barely enough, most mothers choose the kid.
If you're broke, it's not that you like living in a dirty house with stuff broken. It's that you're too tired from work, which is generally lousy and tiring, to do anything especially if there are kids to watch. Broken, poor-quality belongings -- replace the vacuum cleaner or make rent? Dirty floor or out on the street?
If you've never been hurting poor, you are unlikely to understand just how bad a situation it is. If it's a choice between be broke and be there for the kid, or work and have barely enough, most mothers choose the kid.